Torment (Fallen #2)
by Lauren Kate
Summary: Hell on earth.
That's what it's like for Luce to be apart from her fallen angel boyfriend, Daniel.
It took them an eternity to find one another, but now he has told her he must go away. Just long enough to hunt down the Outcasts - immortals who want to kill Luce. Daniel hides Luce at Shoreline, a school on the rocky California coast with unusually gifted students: Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans.
At Shoreline, Luce learns what the Shadows are, and how she can use them as windows to her previous lives. Yet the more Luce learns, the more she suspects that Daniel hasn't told her everything. He's hiding something - something dangerous.
What if Daniel's version of the past isn't actually true? What if Luce is really meant to be with someone else?
The second novel in the addictive FALLEN series...where love never dies.
Review:
It’s difficult to write a review for the books in the Fallen series. My first review was definitely conflicting and I continued to feel the same way after reading book two. With that being said, the Fallen series has become my new guilty pleasure. I love it, but it also aggravates me. But I love it.
The sequel to Fallen was somewhat disappointing, but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless.
My first issue with book two was the lack of Cam’s presence. I liked him a lot in the first book and had hoped he’d be more involved in the sequel, but he only made about 4 appearances. I still don’t care for Daniel, probably even more so after reading Torment. Luce struggled with her feelings for Daniel in Torment, which is was both refreshing and aggravating for me. Daniel repeatedly kept information from Luce, which only served in fueling her doubts about the nature of their relationship. After all, I can see why. After falling in love with the same person in a thousand different lives and dying, it’s probably natural to start thinking a little more critically in the one lifetime where you are still alive after falling for him. I applauded Luce for taking a step back and wondering if this was the kind of life she actually wanted. I thought this whole internal struggle showed a bit of maturity on her part. But then, the previous love triangle between Daniel and Cam and Luce changed into a love square with Daniel, Cam, Luce, and Miles. Perhaps it’s really still a love triangle, but since I’m rooting for Cam, I’m going to leave him in the loop. Instead of thinking deeply about the future Luce has with Daniel and being mature, she starts hanging out with Miles, a guy at her new school, and starts to develop feelings for him. Her doubts turned into things like, “I wish Daniel would be laughing and carefree with me like Miles…” kind of stuff. I may not like Daniel, but I felt like Luce needed a good slap for this. After all, if you are really and truly in love, that kind of behavior is ridiculous. So what, you are fighting with Daniel and you have all these doubts, that doesn’t mean you have to start comparing him to other guys and developing feelings for them. While I liked Miles as a character, I felt that he should have been friendzoned immediately. He was just that kind of person in my opinion and I didn’t expect him to be part of any love triangle conflict.
My other issue with the sequel is the same issue I had with book one. The premise is deep, with the fate of the world in jeopardy, the conflicts of angels and demons and outcasts, the balance of good and evil, the allegiances of all players, etc. Yet, while the reader gets a small glimpse of these deep elements, the majority of the story is still Luce figuring out which guy she wants to be with and bleaching her hair and eating lunch at school.
Luce at least made some progress with understanding the shadows and being able to use them to better understand her life and past lives. She showed a bit of growth in wanting to understand her previous selves and the curse that has haunted her and Daniel for a long time. Unfortunately, Daniel chooses to play the vague card and keep information from her, yet makes a few appearances to berate her for trying to venture out on her own to get some answers. The end of the book starts to make some progress and I’m looking forward to reading book three and continuing the story.
It feels like I have nothing good to say about the story, but I’m completely addicted to it. I wish it was a deeper story and I wish the whole fallen angel premise was more developed and the love triangle conflicts were more on the side instead of the other way around, but it’s still interesting and keeps my attention and leaves me wanting more. I’m definitely continuing the series.
Labels: Review